➡ The text is a reflection on the author’s journey in hip-hop, from writing rhymes in a green notebook to becoming a respected artist. The author admires Jay-Z’s maturity and business acumen, and feels that Jay-Z’s first album, “Reasonable Doubt,” was raw and meaningful. The author also discusses the importance of collaboration in songwriting and the influence of jazz on hip-hop. Lastly, the author expresses frustration with people who don’t appreciate Jay-Z’s contributions to the music industry.
➡ The speaker expresses deep admiration for Jay-Z’s music, highlighting his unique style and impactful lyrics. He apologizes for underestimating Jay-Z’s talent and influence, and acknowledges the rapper’s ability to create memorable verses and songs. The speaker also discusses the challenges and rewards of songwriting, emphasizing the importance of each word in conveying a powerful message. He ends by sharing his own experiences and aspirations as a creator, striving to make words mean more and thrive when challenged.

The first time I wrote a rhyme that I thought I could do was, I’m the king of hip-hop, renewed like the Reebok, the key in a lock with word, so provocative, as long as I live up in town. When I caught that pocket, I was like, oh, I got this. My early years, I had the big green notebook. My mommy got me this notebook, and I was just writing, and you’d be sideways and slanted, and just like a mess. And I was right really small, because I didn’t want anybody to read what I was writing.

First of all, Jay, at this point in his life, and at this point in his life. And I was right really small, you’d be sideways. I think that, personally, I think that Jay-Z dresses better than Dang. If I’m looking at this, and I’m looking at Dang, I believe that Jay dresses better, Jay dresses like a grown man, and I think that he carries himself like a grown man. And it’s crazy to just come from a video where Dang is talking negatively about how Jay dresses, yet Jay dresses like a grown man. He carries himself like a grown man.

He does business like a grown man. He looks like a person that if you walked into it, if I walked into a room and I seen Dang and Jay, and I said, and they said, which one do you want to do business with, just based off of the look and all, you don’t know anything about either one, I’m going to go with Jay. It’s crazy to hate, but let’s get into it. It’s slanted and just like a mess. And I was right really small because I didn’t want anybody to read what I was writing.

My teenage years, I moved further away from the house. And as I moved further away from the house, it was hard to hold these things. I had to retain these thoughts. I didn’t write anymore in that little green note, but I wish I had it, man. I’m really, really, I never kept up with things. And Big Daddy Kane and Brooklyn were the two guys at that moment and the connector was Fresh Gordon. You know what Fresh Gordon is? That watch is sick. You know, because I read it. I read about it. Oh, okay. Fresh Gordon.

Got the leather band on it with the rose. It looked like his rose gold. It was a super connect. Like everyone used to be in the class on it. His house. Fresh Gordon actually really, I believe, look at the class on it, dressed like a grown man. Did the push it beat and sold it for like a $5,000. That’s the folklore. I don’t know if it’s true before, but you go to Fresh Gordon house and Marky D be there. Yeah. Peppa. And then he had like all the computer equipment. His house was beautiful, incredible, incredible. So anyway, in that house, the two guys were going to meet up and they was going to make a what we call a mixtape now.

And everyone was talking about, you know, yeah, who’s that kid? And so Kane was like, I want to work with you and I made a demo with Kane. And it was the first time I was like, Oh, I can make songs. And I was in there. I played for my uncle. He’s like, man, get that shit out of here. I was like, I’m going to be better than LL Cool J. It’s like, get the fuck out of here. But my uncle loved me. He just, he was protecting me in that moment, the way he could, because I was dreaming too big for him.

He was like, let me let me let you down. It don’t happen like that in life. After like, so 96, all the material that’s on reasonable doubt was pretty much already like in my head. The thing about that album is the freedom in it and how naive I was. I didn’t know anything about the music business. I wasn’t trying to make the greatest song or, you know, Streetz was watching the third verse. It’s like 68 bars. It’s not like 16 structured bars that I know is like the Streetz is watching and Keith Dobbs is, that’s your first mistake.

Yo, man, listen, you know why reasonable doubt is so dope is because it was raw. It’s the same reason why Illmatic was dope is because it was raw. And the reason why reasonable doubt is so meaningful to him is because it’s his first album, regardless of what it did and how it did and whatever it did. And it was the brick. It was the first brick that ultimately built up Rockefeller from from a fan’s perspective and is meaningful to him. It’s something that he want to pass down over to his children. I don’t know how you can hate on that.

Palatable for the audience. What I was thinking during reasonable doubt was with my guys. Jay at all. No more. Keep on talking negatively about Jay. First person to tell you all what’s the difference between a four point on a four point six, about 30 to 40 grand. Cocksucker beat it. Keep talking to me about Don’t Jay. I was smoking. I can’t wait to leave drop an album on my mind. Or a long one from Mausti Sun in a nice. Is this talking greasy? He’s all smoking. I hear this. I’m only playing reasonable doubt in the Lambo today.

It’s going to be like they’re going to their minds going to be blown because we just left Vegas and this tells the story of a whole trip. They’re going to go crazy. This story that we just completed and now we’re back home, the hand on wax. That was it. I was trying to make music for guys who were in the street and living just like us to have like a soundtrack to, you know, the emotions that we were dealing with, not just like the highs, not the Lexus and that was part of it.

Yes. Like that’s the eye candy, the Lexus with the TV sets. And then, but the interior feelings and emotions was really what I was trying to accomplish as a writer. Like, how do I go even deeper to like, I’m going to tell you what you were thinking when you were doing that. Cause it was, it was exactly what I was thinking. I know exactly how you felt in that moment when you felt that paranoia or that exhilaration, whatever it was. Most times I come up with the flow first. You may have heard like people like he does his Rain Man in studio.

Cause I’m like, I’m trying to work out the pockets and then I’ll fill it with words. What Biggie had was a jazz pocket that we didn’t really know we was listening to until later on. One of his neighbors was just like jazz musician who would take him to like shows and things like that. We knew Rakim was, you know, come from a jazz background. Right. So we understood that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. So he’s, he’s mimicking a horn. But Biggie was so unorthodox. It was like, Jesus. These are, that’s, that’s just jazz, you know, improv.

Man, Jay is a genius, bro. He’s a, he’s a, he’s a savant and I’m tired of people not giving him his props. I’m tired of people trying to ruin his legacy. I’m tired of the culture turning on people. Jay is him. Real talk. And I still stand on at the nineties and the two thousands is the greatest musical era of all time, as far as rap and hip hop is concerned. It’s the greatest musical era of all time. Straight up. What he was doing, I don’t come from a, like a musical family, like, you know, no instruments, but it was just so much music in the house that it just was innate in me to think musically as well as I thought lyrically.

Even the first album when I didn’t know what I was doing, I listened to those, some of those, those pockets, and they all like melodic. Yeah. Collaboration is important to me because I, again, it’s almost like another ingredient and let’s see how we can create a song that is authentic to all of us. The artist wants the other person to have a great performance because you want a great record. You don’t want to, you don’t want to have a performance where you’re just, you know, your verse is just obliterating someone and then, you know, no one wants to hear that verse.

That’s not good for the song itself. I’m a fan of songwriting. So I want to know that the outcome. I’m curious to see how, you know, how this is going to turn out. You know, what is Pimp C going to say on this beat? You know, he didn’t like that beat in the beginning. It was just like, Hey, Jig, man, man, that’s too fruity, man. He thought he was making like the biggest commercial like sellout record. And he took some convincing. He still did the song. We actually was really cool. Once we met each other, I think he had eight bars.

I’m not sure. Maybe 12. I think he had 12 bars. 12 bar verse. That was like one of the most memorable verses on a song. Cause we, man, it’s like, it’s the, we just did a triple it flow to it. Big Pimp, it’s been achieved. But he, y’all better listen, listen, I’ma go ahead and end this part of the show because y’all have to put some respect on Jigga’s name, bro. Like y’all just don’t realize how great this man’s catalog is. He got multiple different, you know what? Not that I’m thinking about it. Not that I’m thinking about it.

Not that I’m thinking about it. Reasonable doubt, blueprint, black album, volume two. I don’t know. I don’t know, bro. American gangster. I don’t know. You know what? I’m sorry, Jay. I’m sorry, Jay. I apologize for even allowing for a lot of these dudes to even feel like they can be in the same space as you. I apologize. You know what? We forgot. We forgot. We forgot. We just forgot. We didn’t remember. A lot of these songs was a soundtrack to my instrumentals, which you will write your, Jay has songs that you wrote your rhymes to, bro.

Money, cash, hoes. Oh my God. I’m only listening to 90s and 2000s music until I get back from Brazil. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. Jay is, let me see if he’s saying anything else meaningful in this. He did the opposite. He wouldn’t even, he cut it in like, I think, quarter note, whatever. He cut it like small. When I was like, what is he doing? And then by the like fourth bar, I was like, Oh my God. It was just beautiful. Like on Brooklyn’s finest. I didn’t get to hear that till maybe a month later.

So I did all those little parts. I’m saying, what’s your name? Who shot you and Biggie filled those in. And when he was like in faith, I have two and she probably had two packs. I was just like, Oh my God, such a good line. It’s just so good. And it was just so he was one of those ones who ain’t run from like controversy, whether it made him look bad or not. Like, you know, most people ego wouldn’t allow them to say that. And it was like one of the endearing qualities that he had as a, as a writer, you know, black and ugly as ever.

And then the word, one word. However, I stayed Kooji down to the socks, rings and watch filled with rocks and my jam knocks and your Mitsubishi. God, I love the nineties niggas was so powerful. However, black and ugly as ever. However, anything he said after that was going to be amazing. Those are little tricks as a writer that, you know, that you, you, everyone’s trying to accomplish. I can’t say everyone that’s the look that I’m trying to accomplish. Like when I’m writing, it’s like just a word that just changes the framing of the thought in a powerful way and in a shortest amount of time.

Cause that’s hard to do. Like if you got unlimited, you know, God did versus I’m a hit on something because I’m writing through so many pockets, I’m going to hit on a bunch of things. But if I got eight bars, you know, you think about like fronting, like that was a very condensed, hard verse to write. You got eight bars to convey your thoughts and get out of there. You know, those, those is when you got to sit down and really just like, you know, make sure every measure counts. Oh man. This might be the greatest song of all time for me.

This might be my, when I jump in the car and I put on still still, this is my, this is my rat out anthem still. And like when you create it for someone else, especially people that you respect, you know, Dr. Dre, I grew up obviously a fan of him and Snoop, you know, this is Dr. Dre coming off, you know, leaving death row. I know what he was trying to go. Cause I’ve been there a couple of times with like kingdom come and those things. So he’s trying to make, you know, he’s like, I’m, I’m, I’m leaving this place and I want to mature.

So for me, it was just natural to like get into his psyche. Like what would he be thinking right there? What would I be thinking? I would be thinking I have to remind people that I’m Dr. Dre. That’s where still, Dre comes still. It’s like a challenge for you as, as a creator. For me, that’s where I really thrive. Like when I’m challenged to like do a thing to make a word mean more. It’s triple entendre, quadruple entendre. That’s when I feel like I’m at my best. [tr:trw].

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